Out of Africa #4!

We made another trip to Out of Africa a week ago. I LOVE THAT PLACE! Every time we've been, the animals were so active! You can see our other visits here, here, and here :) LOVE THIS PLACE :)


(Unfortunetly this was a unplanned trip and I didn't get my nice camera charged, so here's from my old point and shoot!)

 Kendal being brave and put the carrot between her lips for a big giraffe kiss!

Mylee standing up on the bus watching the camel.

 I love how brave Kendal is. She goes right up to the lady with this huge snake and politely asks if she can pet it.

 Love how close we can get to the animals!

Mylee got sad because she thought we left her. We were behind the stroller and she realized after 10 minutes that she could no longer see us. What drama! haha

 Mylee wasn't really able to get out and be busy like usual. She was either in the stroller or carried. She finally had enough and started reaching for the ground. I let her down and she started taking a few steps. It was cute.

 Such a beautiful animal!

 Mylee even loved the python!

:)

Another beauty!

Here are some awesome videos we got from the day. Amazing! 

Hiking

This new year Tanner and I have been doing more. Tanner gets off work somewhat early from work and we really wouldn't do anything. He'd come home and we'd do this and that, eat dinner and then watch some tv and go to bed. Not a very exciting life. But we have been going out more. Saturday we practically had the WHOLE day together...ALONE! The Buck's...my in laws :)...were awesome and watched the girls so that Tanner and I could go to the Temple. I'm embarrassed to say when the last time we went was...but it was so nice to go back. After the Temple, we did lunch and then picked up the girls. Later that evening we had a young woman from our ward babysit. She needed volunteer hours for school and we were happy to volunteer our kids! We went to dinner at Ah-So. We had the cook cook our food in front of us. That was entertaining. 

Anyway, the reason of this post is we've been hiking lately. There is a hill by us that is paved to the top that I hike twice a week. That same location there are three hills, not paved, and pretty steep that we've hiked a few times now. Here are a few pics from yesterday's hike, I didn't feel like lugging my nice camera along, some of the parts of the hill are straight up/down with lots of loose rocks...didn't want to ruin my camera. So these pics aren't the best quality but who cares. :)

9 Months! And a quick update

Little Mylee is now 9 months old! She is the sweetest little girl. Teething right now, trying to get those two top teeth in. They are about to break so I hurried to take some photos of her today. I'm not really excited about her top teeth coming in. She has such a sweet smile with the two bottom teeth...I don't want it to change! 

At 9 months Mylee:

*Has 2 teeth.

*A big attitude, which we giggle at. She's quite the drama queen.

*LOVES to kiss her baby doll, stuffed animal dog and of course Mommy, Daddy and Kendal. Although she has learned to do a fast kiss with Daddy. It's quite funny. She opens her mouth, goes in for the kiss, barely touches and pulls away with her eyes closed tight. Guess she's learned he has a pokey face!

*I consider her to be a Mommy's girl. I had another little girl sitting on my lap at a baptism and Mylee started being drama. She was crying and reaching for me. It was really funny.

*She LOVES animals. Mainly dogs. She will giggle and screech to get the dogs attention.

*She can say "Mama" "Dada" and Dog "Gah" she jabbers a ton!

*She is starting to walk around the furniture. (I am REALLY tempted to knock her down....I REALLY don't want her walking!!)

*She still sleeps 10-13 hours at night. EVERY night.

*She is a very, VERY active girl. Church is difficult because she wants to be down crawling and exploring.

*She is doing great without the binky! She hasn't found her thumb in exchange so we are good! She goes to bed and naps with ease. I absolutely love it!

*She LOVES to play with Kendal. Anytime Kendal sits on the floor to play with something, Mylee starts to crawl over to her and as she crawls over, Mylee is giggling all the way. "I get to play with Sissy" Kendal gets frustrated after a while, so I've taught Kendal do sit on the couch and play or to not get a certain something out while Mylee is awake. To wait til Mylee goes down for her nap. Kendal is learning that Mylee is a friend. I hope I teach that well. I want my girls to be friends. So far, they are doing well. Kendal is learning to share toys and to give Mylee toys to play with. It's awesome to watch.

She is SUCH an easy baby. She rarely cries. If she does, it's easy to know why. Time to eat, sleep or she's throwing a tantrum cuz she can't have something she wants. Drama, drama, drama. But I love it. I laugh at her fits. They are so pathetic but so cute! I'm so grateful for this sweet girl in our family. She really is the cherry on top. :)

For all those who read my blog...I've been getting that "when are you going to have another baby?" question...to answer...WE ARE NOT HAVING ANYMORE! haha We love just having our two girls and I can't imagine even wanting to be pregnant. I always thought I'd have more, but after going through pregnancy and now raising kids, we are done. :)

I've been really bad at updating lately. I am in training for a half marathon that will take place in less than THREE WEEKS!! I've had a really hard last month dealing with tendinitis in both my knees.I'll be posting about everything after my race. CRAZY!!

Life is great though! Having lots of fun as a family and enjoying each other. Kendal is amazing. She is now in Sunbeams at church and loves it! After we pick her up a handful of teachers tell me how awesome Kendal is and how much of a joy she is to have there. I love hearing that! Kendal is such a good kid. Such a big helper!

I'm excited for the new year. I have some goals that I've set for the year. When thinking about what goals I wanted, I always write down the obvious ones. Eat healthy, don't gain weight, keep a clean house....the same goals I set every year. But this year is a little different.

*Run a half marathon

*Learn to ride a motorcycle

*Hike Camelback mountain (I tried to when kendal was a year old and I only made it about 1/4 of the way up. HARD!!)

*I have a new interest in trail running. With running long distance on the road, my knees and body are falling apart. So I've learned about trail running. Running mountains/hills. Looks like a ton of fun!

These are just a few I've come up with so far. These are real obtainable goals for me. Something I'm interested in. I'm very excited for this new year and where I can take myself.

First up...half marathon!! January 28th, 2012!

Family Photos!

Finally, after 8 months we took family photos! Don't know why it's taken this long. But here they are :) Thank you tripod and new camera remote! You saved us tons of money :)


Mylee is teething so ignore her messy nose. She also wasn't flashing her sweet smile too much tonight either. May be taking more of her in a few days.

Weight Blog Update

I'm currently working on an 8 month posting for Mylee! But until I can get that finished, here is an update from my weight loss blog :)


Another accomplishment! I'm very excited!!!!

Santa Claus and Update!

(lots of videos....sorry about them being blurry. My camera is manual focus in video mode. :/

My girls have been sick so much already! They've both had croup and now colds. Poo. One week it's Kendal, the next is Mylee. It really is getting hard on Mom. I think we'll be keeping out of nursery til the new year. Luckily Kendal will be in sunbeams (CRAZY!) and there hopefully won't be as many germs! 

I haven't really posted much because of the sicknesses. All my time is spent snuggling, wiping noses, giving medicine, etc. But both my girls are napping at the same time so I finally have me time! 

Where to begin!? Little Mylee is 8 months old!! I can't believe how fast she is growing!!! Sometimes I get a little sad about it! But she is just so sweet. She is always smiling. Smiley Mylee! I love it! She is now crawling more on her hands and knees. She's been army crawling since 6 months! It was fun to watch the transition! And it's funny to watch her try to get going really fast on her hands and knees and then face plant it! She doesn't cry, just gets right back up! She is so mobile now. Crawling everywhere. She can go from sitting to laying and then back to sitting. She is also pulling herself up constantly! She has a little piano that she's pulled herself up with several times before, but now she's always standing at it playing. Or she is taking it for a walk across the room. She is trying to use the couch to pull herself up. She gets frustrated. I think she's just scared. She's kind of a sensitive little thing. We have recently taken her binky away. It's only been 2 nights and 1 whole day, but she's doing well. We took Kendal's bink away when she was 9 months. Had no problems. Mylee has been a little attached to her binky so we thought we'd give it a try. So far so good. She cries as she falls asleep, but it's only for 10 minutes. So it's really not that bad! I'm very impressed with her! The reason behind us taking the bink away now is so we won't have a two year old with one! It just seems if you don't take it away before their 1 year birthday...it stays a lot longer. Make sense? One thing I love about taking the bink away is that Mylee FINALLY will snuggle with me!! She was never a snuggle-er and it made me so sad! She loves snuggling with Daddy, but not me. But now she does! Oh how I LOVE LOVE LOVE IT! 

Mylee is starting to like her baths. She thinks splashing is super funny. Didn't get a great video of her laughing but still shows a little. 

She also started playing peek a boo the other day with me. And of course as soon as I grab the camera she stops. 

A video from a month ago. Shows her scooting around. 

Oh the random things they think is hilarious! 

CLAPPING! Trying to. I thought she was waving, but it's a one handed clap! 

 

Hissy Fit. I love her tantrums! 

On to Kendal girl. She is such a funny thing! We've been trying to write stories down in a book. I'll probably just keep those stories there since I can't find the words to really give justice to her goofyness. 

She's learning how to wink! 

 We set up our Christmas Tree :)

And made a countdown to Christmas chain. 

We were able to see Santa TWICE this weekend! Once at our church party...

And again at our neighbors house! Santa came in on a firetruck! Every year Mike, our neighbor, goes crazy with Christmas lights! The kind of lights that light up with music! You tune your radio and listen in. It's awesome. He also makes his own "snow" he was saying it's a mix of soap and....vodka? haha It smelt really good. And all the kids LOVED running and playing in it! 

I love watching Kendal's reaction! At first, where's Santa? Then she just stares at him! I wonder if she saw a difference from the two Santa's. She did however notice this Santa had a different voice. "Mommy, why does Santa talk different?" OOPS! haha

 I really love this photo above! She is such a pretty little girl!

(The only time she's serious! She gets so nervous!)

Mike also had a small train track the little kids could ride. 

Mylee taking a ride with sister.

Mylee squealing at Kendal as Kendal rides the train!

Utah Trip!

Wow! What a crazy few weeks! It seems my girls were sick the whole month of November! One week it's Kendal, the next is Mylee. Kendal is sick again this week. Just a cold. But we have been up since 5am with her coughing. Poor thing. Anyway, this post is about Utah. I'll get to the family in another posting. 

For Thanksgiving we were blessed to be able to make a visit to Utah. My brother who lives in Washington was meeting us there, since it's about half way for everyone. We had so much fun! The 2 days were we visiting my side of the family, I don't even think I saw Kendal. She was busy playing with cousins. (Mostly MY cousins who are her age!) Fun, right!? 

To start off, with me running as much as I am now I didn't want to make a trip and lose it all. So I decided to try to get family members to run a 5k with me. The morning of Thanksgiving we set off on our run. It was nice! Tanner had mapped out a 5k run just around the block so it was perfect. 

 Cousin Clint, S-I-L Stephanie, Brother Chris, Tanner and myself.

Clint was my running buddy. We had fun!

After the run, Tanner has since shaved!

 Thomas and Kendal. Kendal asks daily if she can go visit Thomas, Natalie and the Twins. If only!

My cousin Carson made a turkey pinata!

 My Uncle Kim works at the nearby school and has access to the gym. We played basketball and climbed the rock wall for a long time! It was awesome!

 Always a sideways binky!

 (I can never do a serious smile...awkward! haha)

I just love Mylee! She is so sweet!

Below are some super sweet photos of Mylee and her cousin Beckham. They are only a week and a half apart...looks more like 2 months! He's a big boy!

We also went bowling with everyone. 

We had so much fun visiting family! We are so blessed to have been able to visit with both my side of the family and Tanner's! I was horrible at taking photos while there! The only ones I took with my camera are the bowling ones! Pathetic! I'm kicking myself now!